Nail. Coffin. Some Hammering Required. (But not muuuch...)

Dan Riehl sent me this link, in which he demonstrates "Rick Ellensburg" making the same points as Glenn Greenwald, using much the same language, only hours after Greenwald posted.

"Do Greenwald's fans have his posts tattooed on his arms?" he wonders.

It's a little worse than that, Dan.

Because "Rick Ellensburg," Certified Greenwald Fan, actually makes one of Greenwald's statements, in near-identical laguage, BEFORE Glenn Greenwald does on his own post.

Dans' post led me to realize I myself had witnessed a case of what I will call "Nostradamus Magic Boyfriend." "Rick Ellensworth" had made a Glenn Greenwald point-- before Glenn Greenwald did!

Not only does the Magic Boyfriend obsessively defend Glenn Greenwald, post his CV with loving exactitude, and regurgitate all of his posts with the fluency and command of a, oh, let's say, of a Glenn Greenwald -- he actually writes some of Glenn Greenwald's postings before Glenn Greenwald can get around to doing so himself!

But now Rick Ellensburg goes one step into the future, precognitively channelling Greenwald's postings for the next day.

Now first of all, the circumstances are damning enough. Because while no one calling himself "Glenn Greenwald" responded to Right Wing Nut House's criticism of him on the RWNH blog -- "Rick Ellensburg" did -- we know that, once again, Glenn Greenwald read the blog and objected to the post strenuously.

How do we know this? Why, he addresses Right Wing Nut House in his own little section in this post. Right Wing Nut House gets his very own section for rebuttal, right next to Little Green Footballs and NRO.

So right away we have another case where the thin-skinned, defensive Greenwald reads a post that attacks him but does not respond to it... at least not in his own name.

But it gets worse. A lot worse.

I'm sorry, I have to say it. This is so good I want to dip my balls in it.

Nay-- I MUST dip my balls in it. And I shall.

To recap, as "Rick Ellensburg" and Glenn Greenwald are both fond of saying, every three sentences. We know for a fact that Glenn Greenwald read the RWNH post in question, because he later addresses it on his blog. But he did not respond, at least in his own name, in the post itself.

Now, Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House chose a particular quote of Greenwald's previous day's post to criticize.

Check out what "Rick Ellensburg" says about that quote, at 7:12 Central Time, on February 12th:

Even funnier â€“ looks like Andrew Sullivan agrees with Greenwald, since he took the paragraphs you quoted and called it the â€śQuote of the Day,â€ť saying Greenwald â€śdiagnosed the situation accuratelyâ€ť:

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/02/quote_for_the_d_20.html

Got that? He thinks it's "funn[y]" that Sullivan agrees with Greenwald, and that AS took Greenwald's quote as "Quote of the Day" and said it "diagnosed the situation accurately." And provided a link to AS, of course.

You don't have to remember that long, because you're about to see it again:

Glenn Greenwald, writing at his own blog, at 9:43 AM Brazilian time, on February 13th, the next day:

Ironically, Sullivan, shortly after Moran posted this, took the precise paragraphs quoted above [Greenwald's quotes, the ones Moran had attacked] and made them the "Quote of the Day" on his site, concluding that my post "diagnos[es] the situation accurately."

Hyperlink in orignal post. Bolding added.

So what have we?

Rick Ellensburg calls it "funn[y];" the next day, Greenwald finds it "ironic[]."

Rick Ellensburg notes Sullivan used the disparaged quote as the "Quote of the Day;" so does Greenwald. The next day.

Rick Ellensburg notes that Sullivan said the quote "diagnosed the situation accurately;" the next day, Glenn Greenwald notes Sullivan says the quote "diagnose[s] the situation accurately."

And yes, provides the link in both instances.

Friends, we either have Greenwald sock-puppetting "Rick Ellensburg," or we have a case of Glenn Greenwald plagiarizing Rick Ellensburg.

So which is it? He read the thread, but does not acknowlege getting any points from Ellensburg; either he lifted from Ellensburg, or he did not owe Ellensburg a hat-tip, as Ellensburg was a made-up screenname with a two-hour lifetime spent entirely in RWNH's thread and was, in fact, Glenn Greenwald himself.

You usually hat-tip other people. You don't, however, hat-tip yourself.

And yes, Glenn Greenwald did read all the comments in that thread, because he takes the time to quote several of them and respond to them. He quotes one left-leaning commenter approvingly. He didn't merely read the thread; he read all the comments! And yet, as annoyed as he was with RWNH -- taking RWNH to task in a follow-up post the next day -- he somehow managed to restrain himself from commenting there... at least under the name "Glenn Greenwald."

Strangely, however, he does not praise the astuteness of his fearless defender Rick Ellensburg, the man who so vigorously defended him, and the man from whom he apparently lifted that business about the Sullivan quote. In fact, he doesn't even acknowlege him. He acknowleges "Dr. Biobrain" and a conservative he disagrees with; absolutely no mention of Rick Ellensburg.

Why is that? Why cite one liberal who agrees with you, one conservative who disagrees with you, and entirely ignore the guy you agree with most completely, who was most vigorously arguing your points?

Why not a quick mention? Why not say, "Rick Ellensburg also makes good points." Why not hat-tip the guy who apparently alerted you to Sullivan's linking of you as the Quote of the Day?

Oh... And there's more there, too. I only focused on that one quote, but "Rick Ellensburg" makes several points in Greenwald's defense. I am curious to see if any of those magically made their way into Greenwald's rebuttal to RWNH the next day. But it's late, and I'm not quite curious enough.